


Powerful | Wonderful | Ridiculous

by thatsoccercoach



Series: Which Door? [54]
Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Domestic Fluff, Gotham's Writing Workshop, ridiculous love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-28 23:25:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15717237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsoccercoach/pseuds/thatsoccercoach
Summary: Wee Faith and Bree ask their da about love.





	Powerful | Wonderful | Ridiculous

                                                                 

(Block quote from _The Tale of Despereaux_ by Kate DiCamillo)

Their home was still aside from the wiggles and fidgeting in Bree’s small bed. The primary reason for the unrest was that Jamie occupied most of the space though Fatih and Bree were both curled up on either side of him like baby birds in a nest.

The twins were asleep and Claire, for once, had said goodnight early and had gone to bed as well. Now it was just Jamie and the older girls reading together before he’d turn the light out and wish them a good night too.

He pitched his voice lower, softer, so as not to disturb any of the other Frasers and continued to read aloud.

> Reader, you may ask this question; in fact you _must_ ask this question: Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse to fall in love with a beautiful human princess named Pea?
> 
> The answer is…yes. Of course it is ridiculous. Love is ridiculous.
> 
> But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux’s love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.

“But, Da? What’s that even mean?” Bree pointed to the passage he’d just finished reading from the book Faith had brought home from the school library earlier in the week. “Love isn’t ridiculous!”

“O’ course it is,” interjected Faith from his other side. “I love you and _that’s_ ridiculous!” she grinned as Bree stuck out her tongue, giggling.

“Och, hush now. Ye dinna want to wake the bairns. Or yer mam!” he waggled his eyebrows at them and Faith buried herself in his side once more.

“But what’s it mean, Da?” Bree persisted.

Faith’s head popped up once again, eager to share the wisdom of her many years.

“It’s just like when our Murtagh was sick and we skipped dance class to go be with him,” the oldest wee Fraser explained. “Or how when I was a bairn, Da stayed with me when Mama couldn’t and slept in a chair for days instead of going home and going to bed, just to make sure I was well.”

“Aye,” Jamie agreed. “Or ‘tis like me and yer mam falling in love.”

“How’s it like that, Da?” chorused two little voices.

“So, ye want to hear more then?” he teased.

“Of course we do, silly Da!” Faith chortled.

“Weel, ye ken that I marrit yer mam twice, aye?” he asked to stunned silence. “Ye didna ken that? Truly? Why did ye suppose we celebrate our anniversary twice?”

“I just thought you loved each other a lot and that you kept celebrating all year,” Bree trailed off, shrugging. “We _just_ learned the names of all the months at school so I havena been keeping very close track, Da.”

“Oh, aye?” he raised his eyebrows. “Weel, yer mam and I fell in love nearly like they do in fairy tales: love at first sight. Least that’s how it was for me. Yer mam was a tiny bit slower to fall in love, but she did!”

He paused and looked askance at his wee lassies again. “Ye really didna ken that yer mam and I got marrit twice?”

“No!” insisted Faith.

“Just tell us, Da!” Bree huffed in exasperation.

“Weel, I suppose that her accidentally coming to my house for a party I wasna having was a pretty ridiculous start to our love. Then there was what was _supposed_ to be our first date that yer cousin, wee Jamie, took over and made into a babysitting job.”

“You didn’t even take Mama somewhere special for your first date?” Faith gasped. “Da, you should have treated her special!”

“Och, I did plan somethin’ special it’s just that wee Jamie needed a sitter! I ended up taking her to a fancy restaurant. She said she liked going to the zoo wi’ yer cousin better.”

“Oh,” Faith tucked herself back against his side once more and murmured, “Then what?”

“Then she fell in love wi’ me and we wed and-”

“But _wot_?” Bree nearly shrieked. And sounded decidedly and uncharacteristically like her mother. “Then she fell in love with you? You didn’t even _do_ anything!”

“ _I_ loved _her_ afore she did anything and you werna bothered by _that_ ,” he said, somewhat indignantly.

Beside him, Bree huffed. “ _You’re_ supposed to be the prince-guy in this story, Da. You’re supposed to fall in love with her just because you think she’s lovely and perfect even if she _does_ swear sometimes when she thinks we don’t hear it.”

“We do hear it, Da,” Faith confided secretively.

“I ken it well,” he sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. This bedtime story had taken a turn he wasn’t entirely prepared for.

“Were there _rats_ in your story? Or bad guys?” Bree’s curiosity distracted him again.

“Nay, no rats or bad guys, just wee Jamie and pushy relatives and Boston,” he answered.

“What’s a Boston, Da?” she wondered.

“It’s not a _what_ ,” Faith corrected. “It’s a _where_. But I don’t know what Boston ever did to you and Mama!”

“Yer mam was a mighty fine nurse, even afore we met. She was selected from among her colleagues to be offered a brilliant job with lots of extra education, training, and experiences. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But it was in Boston,” he said ominously.

“It’s far, huh, Da? So very far away?” Faith whispered sadly, though she knew how the story ended.

“It is far, _mo leannan_. And though I would have gone wi’ her, yer mam made _her_ choice clear. She chose me, though I dinna deserve a woman such as her. When our wedding day seemed too far away to wait for, when there were too many silly things we were supposed to plan but that we didna actually _need_ , I just reminded her that we already had each other. We got marrit then, in a small ceremony-” he was cut off yet again by a small voice.

“So you had a secret wedding?!” Bree’s eyes were shining with mischief.

“No’ a secret because we didna _want_ folks there, but a surprise that we did just for ourselves, aye,” he clarified. “Then a few months later we had our fancy wedding wi’ all our friends and family.”

“That’s the one where Mama wore her fairy princess dress, right?” Faith murmured into his side where she was burrowing even deeper.

“Aye. She looked like a vision! All sparkling in white, eyes shiny, sweetest smile I’d ever seen on her face until I saw her hold you lasses,” he smiled down at them now.

“I love that story, Da,” Bree stated. “But do you know what?”

“What, lass?” he asked.

“Love actually _is_ all those things: Powerful, wonderful, and _ridiculous_!”


End file.
